No Incumbents Among 22 Filing for Burbank Seats

No matter who wins the election on Feb. 23, the Burbank City Council is going to have a new majority.

A record 22 candidates have filed to run for three seats on the five-member council, and none is an incumbent, City Clerk Marge Lauerman said Friday.

Seven other candidates are running for four other offices in Burbank, including city clerk, city treasurer and two seats on the school board.

“It’s the most candidates we’ve ever had,” Lauerman said.

Lauerman herself will be opposed by Margarita Campos, who has been the City Council secretary for 13 years. City Treasurer Jim Rogers is running unopposed.

Burbank officials said interest in the council race is high because all three incumbents whose terms expire in the spring have decided not to seek reelection.

“The last time we had three open seats with no incumbents was in the 1920s,” Lauerman said.

If none of the candidates gets a majority of the votes, the top six vote-getters will face one another in an April runoff.

The new council will face an economy that has shrunk in the past two years, as large employers such as Lockheed, the Zero Corp. and the Andrew Jergens Co., a soap maker, have left the city, taking about 10,000 jobs.

Entertainment companies such as Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros. are expanding. But Burbank probably will have to cut services in coming years, City Manager Robert Ovrom said.

“We expect two or three more tough years ahead of us,” Ovrom said. “A lot of the forecasting we’re getting these days doesn’t see the economy coming back until 1995.”

The current council has eased the way for new development but in so doing has aroused the anger of slow-growth activists. They argue that when the economy rebounds, construction will hurt the quality of neighborhood life.

“There needs to be more attention to neighborhood concerns,” said Ted McConkey, president of Burbank Rancho Homeowners. “The neighborhoods have really gotten chewed up over the past 10 years.

“I agree that the first priority is economic development. We have to replace the jobs that have been lost,” he said. But “we need to replace the well-paying manufacturing jobs we’ve lost with comparable jobs that are sensitive to the environment and neighborhoods.”

The council election was thrown wide open in September, when the three incumbents whose terms expire all announced they would not run.

Councilman Michael Hastings decided to quit after two four-year terms. Council members Tim Murphy and Tom Flavin served one term each. The three cited family and business concerns as their reasons for quitting.

Hastings and Flavin have often formed a voting bloc with the two remaining members, Mayor Robert Bowne and Councilman George Battey, in support of increased economic development. In July, the four voted for an ordinance that streamlined the city’s permit process to make new construction easier and limit citizen appeals of proposed developments.

In the Burbank Board of Education race, one incumbent and three challengers will compete for two seats. Incumbent Audrey Hanson will not seek reelection.

Board President Vivian Kaufman will face educator Denise Wilcox, who came in third behind Kaufman and Hanson in 1989; Michael S. Stavropoulos, a doctor; and businessman Joe Hooven, who serves on the Burbank Park and Recreation Board.

The biggest problems facing the school board will be aging buildings and growing enrollments. In the face of criticism from parents, the board recently backed off a proposal to change overcrowded Joaquin Miller Elementary to a year-round school. Wilcox, who has three children at Miller, was active in rallying opposition to the year-round schedule.

The list of candidates will not be final, Lauerman said, until the county verifies that the candidates are Burbank residents and registered voters.

Burbank Candidates

Here are the 22 candidates for Burbank City Council:

Several have run before:

* Tom McCauley, an engineer and chairman of the Burbank Democratic Club, who lost in an April, 1991, runoff.

* Dave Golonski, a financial systems manager and author of an unsuccessful slow-growth initiative, who lost in February, 1991.

* D. Dianne Adams, a businesswoman and founder of San-Glen Homeowners, who also lost in 1991.

Others are veterans of other city electoral battles:

* Carolyn Berlin, secretary of the Burbank Democratic Club and co-founder of the Verdugo-Magnolia Park Homeowners Assn., co-author of Measure B, a slow-growth initiative defeated in 1991.

* Richard Messer, co-owner of the Burbank Airport Hilton Hotel and Convention Center. He opposed both slow-growth initiatives that year.

The field includes two colorful gadflies who frequently criticize city officials at council meetings:

* Jules Kimmett, a retired custodian who calls himself “his majesty’s loyal opposition,” holds up hand-painted signs calling for the firing or arrest, or both, of various city officials. Kimmett once got 80,000 votes in a failed bid for governor. He is running for a fifth time.

* Melvin Perlitsh, a vocal council critic who has been physically removed from council and school board meetings.

Others, as described on their filing papers:

* Ron Shively, a retired utility executive.

* Bob Kramer, a painting contractor and columnist for the twice-weekly Burbank Leader newspaper.

* Susan Spanos, a community volunteer.

* Elena Cook, former secretary of the Burbank Law Center.

* Bill Wiggins, president of Automation Plating Corp. in Glendale.

* Arne Manson, a retired insurance manager.

* Gregory Jackson, an engineering consultant.

* Ron Watters, a driving teacher at Burroughs High School.

* Thomas Pratt, an insurance marketing specialist.

* Joe Brownfield, whose occupation was not given.

* Robert Bates, an attorney.

* John Hardy, a business owner.

* Marti Israel, an educator and business owner.

* Morry Waksberg, a physician and businessman.

* Lou Morelli, a business executive.